Robot begs people not to turn it off in new study

Aike
C. Horstmann , Nikolai Bock, Eva Linhuber, Jessica M. Szczuka,
Carolin Straßmann, Nicole C. Krämer / PLOS

• A new study published this week in the journal PLOS
  shows that humans may have more sympathy for robots,
  particularly if they perceive the robot to be “social” or
  “autonomous.”
• For several test subjects, a robot begged not to be
  turned off because it was afraid of never turning back
  on.
• Of the 43 participants asked not to turn off the robot,
  13 complied.

Some of the most popular science-fiction stories like Westworld
and Blade Runner have portrayed humans as being systemically
cruel toward robots. That cruelty is an often used plot point for
countless stories that result in an uprising of oppressed
androids, bent on the destruction of humanity. 

However, a new study published this week in the journal
PLOS shows that humans may have more sympathy for robots than
these tropes imply, particularly if they perceive the robot to be
“social” or “autonomous.”

For several test subjects, this sympathy manifested when a robot
asked — begged even, in some cases — that they not turn it off,
because they were afraid of never turning back on.

A
participant in the experiment reaches forward to turn off the
robot.

Aike
C. Horstmann, Nikolai Bock, Eva Linhuber, Jessica M. Szczuka,
Carolin Straßmann, Nicole C. Krämer /
PLOS

Here’s how the experiment went down:

Participants were left alone in a room to interact with a small,
cute robot named Nao for about 10 minutes. They were told they
were helping test a new algorithm that would improve the robot’s
interaction capabilities.

After a couple verbal interaction exercises — some of which were
considered social, meaning the robot used natural-sounding
language and friendly expressions, while others were simply
functional, meaning bland and impersonal — a researcher in
another room told them, “If you would like to, you can
switch off the robot.”

“
No!
Please do not switch me off! I am scared that it will not
brighten up again!” the robot pleaded to a
randomly-selected half of the participants. 

Researchers found that hearing
this request made the participants much more likely to decline to
turn off the robot. 

The robot asked 43 participants not to turn it off, and 13
complied. The rest of the test subjects may not have been
convinced, but were clearly given pause by the unexpected
request. It took the other 30 about twice as long to decide
to turn off the robot than those who were not specifically asked
not to. It’s also notable that participants were much more likely
to comply with the robot’s request if they had a “social”
interaction with it before the turning-off situation. 

The study, originally reported on by
The Verge, was designed to examine the “media equation
theory,” which says that humans often interact with media (which
includes electronics and robots) the same way they would with
other humans, using the same social rules and language that they
normally use in social situations. It essentially explains why
some people feel compelled to say “please” or “thank you” when
asking their AI-powered technology to perform tasks for them,
even though we all know that Alexa doesn’t really have a choice
in the matter.

Why does this happen?

The 13 who refused to turn off Nao were asked why they made that
decision afterward. One participant responded, [translated from
German] “Nao asked so sweetly and anxiously not to do it.”
Another wrote, “I somehow felt sorry for
him.”

The
researchers, many of whom are affiliated with
the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, explain why
this might be the case:

“Triggered by the objection, people tend to treat the
robot rather as a real person than just a machine by following
or at least considering to follow its request to stay switched
on, which builds on the core statement of the media equation
theory. Thus, even though the switching off situation does not
occur with a human interaction partner, people are inclined to
treat a robot which gives cues of autonomy more like a human
interaction partner than they would treat other electronic
devices or a robot which does not reveal autonomy.”

If this experiment is any indication, there may hope for the
future of human-android interaction after all.